Chauncey Graham is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, a Performance Enhancement Specialist and a Corrective Exercise Specialist. As a Gold's Gym Fitness Expert he delivers fitness and nutritional advice and services to better help you achieve your best look ever. This blog is dedicated to sharing health and fitness tips with men and women to achieve their many different fitness goals.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Got Water?

Have you been feeling faint, dizzy, nauseous, thirsty, or constipated? If so, you may want to consider drinking more water regularly throughout the day. This is important whether you workout or not or if you live in warmer than normal or cooler than normal climate areas.

A good way to determine how much water you need each day is to divide your body weight in pounds by 2.2 to find your body weight in Kilograms. Multiply this new number (your body weight in kgs) by 40 and you will get the amount of milliliters of water you need throughout a day. Divide this number by 1000 and you will get an accurate amount of liters of water you need to drink a day to minimize the symptoms of dehydration, based on your body weight. If you have a balance diet, you can factor in a liter of water from the food that you eat throughout the day. Most people require anywhere from 2-4 liters of water a day but, this is highly dependent on how active or inactive you are. The more activity you do the more water you must drink.

On days that you perform moderate to vigorous exercise you need almost 2 extra liters of water on top of your daily recommendation. Before your workout it is good to drink 500ml of water or a 16oz bottle of water to help with joint fluidity and to maintain high blood volume. Yes, you will prevent injury and your muscles and joints will feel and move better when you are hydrated. Dehydration can also reduce blood volume because blood is approximately 85-90% water. Your heart moves water packed bloods cells throughout your body at a high rate while you are active. During your workout it is good to take a drink every 15 mins to maintain hydration. Your lack of energy later in your workout could be because your body has to work extra hard to turnover oxygen and water. After your workout, especially if you sweat a lot, it is good to drink a 1.5 liters of water within an hour. This will guarantee that you restore all water lost and kick start the nutrient transfer of a proper post workout meal.

Regular water intake is more important than you think. The effects of dehydration may be the reason why you cannot improve your performance or body composition. When your body does not have enough water it cannot function well. This can decrease your metabolism and performance, mentally and physically. The next time you feel thirsty it is important to know that your body has already started the unhealthy adaptation to the lack of water well before this feeling. So drink water regularly and do not rely on thirst!